Devil May Cry 2 (PlayStation 2) review

"Devil May Cry was a huge surprise hit by Capcom. Dante became the ultimate badass in videogaming, a half devil creature with one heck of an attitude. He was quick witted with a flashy statement, and guns to back it up. That was the original Devil May Cry, the sequel has a much lamer Dante, and overall a lamer game. Now this review is going to center on the many bad points in Devil May Cry 2, but don't get me wrong, this is not really a horrible game. I do not really regret buying it, although I ..."

Devil May Cry was a huge surprise hit by Capcom. Dante became the ultimate badass in videogaming, a half devil creature with one heck of an attitude. He was quick witted with a flashy statement, and guns to back it up. That was the original Devil May Cry, the sequel has a much lamer Dante, and overall a lamer game. Now this review is going to center on the many bad points in Devil May Cry 2, but don't get me wrong, this is not really a horrible game. I do not really regret buying it, although I should've waited until I got it a bit cheaper. But Devil May Cry was a great game, and while the gameplay is slightly the same, everything else is different in a bad way.

STORY (6/15): What happened to the great story in Devil May Cry, that had everyones hearts and all the gals crying over their Dante. First of all; the characterization. Dante is nothing like he was before. He doesn't have that same attitude, and his villains don't have an attitude at all. Most bosses don't even talk, and Dante doesn't even throw around his quick worded threat. The whole story is weaker, with no twists, nothing happens that isn't unexpected. It is almost as if a 5 year old wrote the game, and maybe one did...

GRAPHICS (10/15): This is the one thing that didn't get worse from Devil May Cry, too bad it didn't get better either. Devil May Cry 2 survives off the same graphics apparent in Devil May Cry, without any changes. While the graphics were good before, now they are mediocre. They do look good, but at times they look almost like a Playstation or Nintendo 64 game, and not complete. Things could've been much more advanced, with more detail.

SOUND (6/10): The sound effects are fairly nice, as the sword swooshes or the bang of your bullets flying. That brings most of the points in this category, along with the speaking of Matier. Dante, Lucia, and Arius all have fairly bland voices, that makes it obvious the people who played their voices probably read it directly off a sheet without emotion. The rest of the badguys, don't speak, so you can't read their voices at all.

GAMEPLAY (30/45): Devil May Cry 2 is the exact same gameplay as Devil May Cry, and in most ways that is a good thing. You have unlimited ammo with your guns and you have a sword for melee battles. First thing, the guns. They are very useful in taking quick but small amount of damage against opponents without putting yourself at risk of being hit. The different types of guns have their advantages and disadvantages, such as speed and power and things like that.

Next up is the swords. What do you do when the enemies get right next to you? It's time to throw out your melee weapon the sword. Using the analog stick and just the regular sword slice button, you can brutally attack an opponent. The combos are alot more difficult to reach then the first Devil May Cry, and have almsot no purpose, besides to rack up points. The swords are not different at all, which is kinda dissapointing, plus they are not as cool as they could've been.

Once again the redgems are present, but this time there are no moves for you to use them for. Instead of using red gems to get moves, you use them to level up weapons. In a way this is good, in other ways this is bad. I like the ability to level up weapons, but the different levels don't really effect your weapons at all, besides giving them a bit more power. And once again, the special moves are all there at the beggining of the game, and you will never have to use any of them.

Finally, the levels itself. Most of them are confusing, and just require pointless fighting, and double jumping from here to there. You will get lost, but in a no purposeful way, besides the fact that all the places look the same. The level designs are just not original, and not really interesting. You are either running through towns or buildings, fighting monsters that just materialize whenever you hit a big empty area. You will never be surprised when being attacked, cause it is always apparent. Bosses are simple also, and the Devil Trigger is cheap beyond belief, seeing you can't even be attacked while in it. The skill is pointless, cause you can either just kill enemies by hitting X over and over, and shooting them to death and now and then go even cheaper with Devil Trigger.

REPLAYABILITY (5/10): Well, this is a fairly short game. It took me about 4 hours to defeat Dantes mode. The one good thing, is Devil May Cry 2, is two-discs long so you can also play Lucia's mode, which is a different game. So, total, there are 8 hours of gameplay present, which is fairly short still. So even with the added in game, it still is one of the shortest games I own for this time period. There isn't any other modes of difficulty, really, either so there is another lack of reason to play the game again. Really, just not worth it.

DIFFICULTY (2/5): As I mentioned above, in Devil May Cry 2 there is only one difficulty to choose from, so you people who could only beat the first on easy are probably worried. Guess what? That only mode of difficulty is even easier than the easiest mode of Devil May Cry. Devil May Cry 2 is the easiest Teen Rated game I have ever played, and an experienced gamer could likely beat the game in a day with his hand tied behind his back. I was worried when there was no easy mode to pick from, but the game was even too easy for me. There is definitely a problem with difficulty here.

OVERALL (59/100): Now Devil May Cry 2 wasn't a completely horrible game, it just wasn't what it could've been. I expected great things of this game, seeing Devil May Cry was such a great experience. But this game was actually downgraded from the original game. Instead of taking their time to make a great experience that lasted, Capcom created a short game that really did not offer as much as it could. The only good thing was that you can play through two different characters, although even with that the game is still shorter than the first one, and it is not really worth it anyway. Devil May Cry 2 was a dissapointment, and is only worth a Rent and not a purchase.

The Star Fox team first appeared on the Gamecube in a platform game, called Star Fox Adventures. While, many considered it a quality game (and others a subpar game) it never really felt like a true Star Fox game, despite the occasional flying (simple stages). Namco, however, introduced the true sequel to the classic St...

Jak II was one of those experience that every gamer either absolutely loved or completely loathed. The game strayed from everything the first Jak game stood for, in that it took a much serious outlook, and it based itself more on the GTA series, that it's own original concept. Jak III does not change any of that, as it...

Jak and Daxter was a platforming game based on exploration, simple fight patterns, cool minigames, and lush colorful scenery. All that has changed in Jak II, for no longer is the Jak series perfect for kids of all ages and instead this game is only a little less intense version of Grand Theft Auto.

Feedback

If you enjoyed this Devil May Cry 2 review, you're encouraged to discuss it with the author and with other members of the site's community. If you don't already have an HonestGamers account, you can sign up for one in a snap. Thank you for reading!

You must be signed into an HonestGamers user account to leave feedback on this review.